Pretend Bar Hopping

I saw this piece of street art at Bayview Park and couldn't quite figure it out. A spindly coconut palm perhaps?Florida has something like a hundred speciality tags which makes figuring out where they are from quite a strain. The tags are a way to raise money for particular causes in a state with no personal income tax and masses of assorted fees to make up the difference. I have no idea where the money raised by this specialty tag goes. These tags cost $25 a year extra and to get a design approved 5,000 people have to promise to buy one if it goes into production. Cyclists rule I guess. Cat sleeping. Cheyenne stumped on by, not noticing a thing and caring even less.Rain has come to the Keys, a very small dose, but the first moisture in months so I hope we can start to see plants reviving in public places.It is starting to feel like summer, with daily temperatures in the 80s. It's tough if you wear a fur coat. This Harley had a fur coat on the seat. I thought it looked odd, but American motorcyclists have a nationwide obsession with seat comfort., and there is a huge aftermarket in weird seat designs and accessories to make riders out of shape backsides more comfortable.If this bike is ridden by a man I wonder at the resilience of his testicles. My Bonneville has a stock seat, fondly referred to by many as a plank. It works fine for me.The Green Parrot Bar was apparently being patronized by many cyclists. I love Key West's overflowing bike racks. Every city should look like this: Or this character who paraded up and down on Whitehead Street looking like Baron Samedi.I have one of these growing next to my dock. I forget what they are called but Robert told me they are non native and grow like crazy.If not riding bikes all sorts of people can be seen riding around town on scooters, the other practical means of transport in the Southernmost City. Lots of riders drag their feet as they ride, but this one was tottering up to the light with enormous heels. I could never manage to ride in such footwear:I wanted to know what their story was as the marched up the sidewalk, an image of long standing commitment and rectitude next to the boozers at the Parrot.See? Middle aged scooterists rule. Riding is not a statement about being cool, just the best way to get around town. Too bad the rest of America hasn't figured out what Key West knows.Walk down the street in a bikini and you will get some wolf whistles from crass young tourists but she appeared practiced in ignoring them.

I failed completely to pop into the Parrot for a drink. I had places to go and people to see and if I drink alcohol in the middle of the day I fall asleep (which might be the point).

Higgs Beach Summer

I know summer has arrived in Key West; the bums have gone.The Tiki hut where my dog is seen taking her ease is occupied all winter long by a group of more or less noisy gentlemen of the highway who come south to enjoy winter and disperse Up North when the season is over. That they are gone is proof positive that winter has fled.

Year round residents find themselves edged out of the amenities by a combination of residentially challenged and busy snowbirds but now the free beach on the south shore of the island is a family destination. More or less. Temperatures in the middle of the day last week were hovering in the mid 80s, warm enough to keep sensible dog owners out of the dog park. We had it to ourselves and Cheyenne pottered along sniffing and pausing and sitting for a while in the shade while I read the newspaper.

I am told seawater temperatures are rising rapidly and several Conchs have mentioned that the ocean is now comfortable and warm enough to actually swim in. I must refurbish my outboard on the skiff. Certainly the water looked inviting: I saw a bunch of people painting and they gave Higgs Beach a civilized air, Edwardian ease, as they dabbed their canvases. In the sort of odd coincidence that peppers life in these small islands, I saw these people gathered a while later on Ann Street perhaps transported by tour bus, back downtown. The welcome shade of a non native coconut palm. They come to look and are whisked through the park with a brief shout out about the White Street Pier, the African cemetery and the Martello tower fort. Then they are gone...

On the subject of the African cemetery, a recent addition after remains believed to be those of slaves brought ashore from an intercepted Spanish slave ship and essentially left to die on the beach but for the intervention of the post master of the time. The discovery of more remains is leading some people to think parts of the dog park may have to be assigned to an expanded cemetery...What better way to spend a vacation than in the Keys on a bike with no shirt?

Astro City is a fenced in sandy playpen for small children and patient parents.

Casual scootering in the sun.

And then there is that other 19th century style of travel, by sail.

I walked Cheyenne back to the car after she had taken her fill at the dog park water fountain and she flopped eagerly on the back seat of the air conditioned Fusion.

We drove round to Higgs Beach from White Street and this is what the place looks like from the road. Mind the speed limit, I have known people to get tickets here...

Mickens By Whitehead

No matter how long I live in this town and work the 9-1-1 phones it seems I will still have something new to learn about the alleys and lanes.Mickens Lane, I recently discovered is actually L-shaped and while i knew it started on Angela Street I had no idea it popped out on Whitehead Street. And I thought I was an explorer.At first glance the Whitehead Street end of Mickens Lane is simply part of the parking lot shared by the law firm and some neighboring apartments. However the city recently painted the street sign (in capital letters) and I noticed.Cheyenne thought this was an excellent place to explore.

Others who had come before me apparently found the trek tiring and they took action to ease their walk.The mystery of why I had thought Mickens was a short straight street off Angela was revealed by the sharp turn at the very narrow end of the lane.Looking toward the big trees on Angela Street, near the Angelina Guest house, shows how inconspicuous the lane is.Mickens was named for the Mickens family, not surprisingly I suppose. That was all the information J. Wills Burke's excellent The Streets of Key West had to say on the subject. He did also say that this used to be known previously as Guava Lane.Cheyenne and I were as wary as possible but no dog appeared to interrupt our delightful solitude.Looking back at Whitehead Street I can see why I had thought this was just a parking lot. I went to see David Horan once years ago about transferring title on a documented boat I owned. He is a specialist in Admiralty Law and is famous as an early investor with treasure hunters Mel and Deo Fisher. He reportedly made a fortune when they struck gold but he enjoys being the grand old legal man of Key West and keeping a law firm in the heart of it all, just steps away from the county courthouse.It is my belief that were I to strike gold I could easily do nothing at all, all day, not even visit bars or take riepe to strip joints. My previous post on this enchanting lane can be found here: http://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2009/11/mickens-lane.html

Key West Evening

I was struck by the notion that Key west as a walking/cycling/scootering town might be hard to believe looking at the photograph below, snapped in front of the Green parrot Bar at a peak motoring moment.In many respects Key West is the city of paradox, heavily regulated, yet frequently lax in enforcement, a city filled with people who know each other far too intimately, yet leavened by hordes of total strangers who descend on the city every winter and who claim residence based on four months of fresh air seasonal life in the little city. I have no idea what tarot skin care is but I did like the bold unconventional approach to city signage: Across town the school district has sneakily built a new school more than twice the height permitted by city regulations. Judging by the furore you'd think they threw up the building overnight when no one was looking. City engineers checking the plan for safety failed to notice the projected building was 56 feet tall. The school district simpered disarmingly and said they thought they were exempt from city zoning regulations. The city manager shrugged and said, oh well, spilled milk and all that, moving on...The county accused a private group of bilking them in their contract to take care of stray animals in mid county. An audit tried to prove Stand Up For Animals used county money inappropriately. All it seemed to prove was that the woman who ran the organization is a rotten book keeper, but nothing worse. Speaking as one such myself (my wife won't let me near a check book) I sympathize with the accidentally mingling of private donations with public funds. A friend said SUFA was found guilty before the trail was even scheduled. The fact remains that dismissed in disgrace, a replacement agency for Stand Up For Animals at the same cost is proving hard to locate. And bidders are crying Foul! and Rigged! about the new bidding process. We are entering a new phase of Empire it seems, the part Edward Gibbon, writing about the Romans, called Decline and Fall. There is a belief among our leaders, eagerly adopted by their followers that the principle of something for nothing can continue to be adopted even after it was proved disastrously, to be untrue in 2008. We used to enjoy living on credit, nowadays we believe the debt can be paid off by cutting expenses, maintaining services at the same level even though fees are cut, and continuing to live well all the while. In Florida, where public indebtedness is a very small proportion of the state budget, 4 billion of 70 billion, the Governor is moving ahead with plans to cut programs he doesn't like while expanding unregulated giveaways of public monies to the private for profit sector as a way of "cutting expenses." It seems odd to me that private corporations that have to pay stock holders can do anything for less money than publicly operated agencies. Until one remembers that cutting wages and benefits is how they do it.Key West has weathered the financial storm quite well so far, but I wonder what the future will bring as we spiral down into an unequal world of lower wages, fewer benefits and even less paid vacations. You can't sustain a consumer economy on unemployment and wage cuts.I feel fortunate to have a good job in a great place to live and even though my wife faces major wage cuts we know how to live with less, having spent years enjoying living on a boat. many of our neighbors, even in the Keys, are far more rigid and I see signs of social stress all around me.My dog doesn't mind. I was at The Pines park on South Roosevelt enjoying the warmth and the glow of sunset over the Straits of Florida. Cheyenne, who is living retirement as it should be lived, was making new friends. That they had a roast chicken and a loaf of bread was purely coincidental to her interest in their well being.She was quite cheerful about the intruder, he less so, but it took me grabbing my pig in a fur coat by the collar and dragging her back to the car to separate her from her dreams of roast chicken. Stress for Cheyenne has a whole different meaning.

The Porch

My wife wanted to go on a date. Beer and movies sounded like a good idea to both of us. We could have chosen to go to one of those dank noisy dark places that "specialize" in gnat's piss on the 200 block of Duval or we could have chosen to go here:No television no piped music, just beer wine and conversation. I liked this place as soon as I stepped in. No clunky tourists waving drunken souvenirs in our faces either. The chalk board listed the beers on draft, including cider, and we asked for something not hoppy. there is a passion among hip brewers to make the strongest most bitter beer they can. It's like the hip fad of making red wines as dark and tannic and nasty as one can to impress the customers, or brewing coffee so dark and mouth puckering it tastes like battery acid. I got a Sam Adams Saison, mildly bitter but very smooth and my wife really liked her Namaste. "Hey, Michael" a voice called out. And there was Fred sipping a Chamay Blonde. "I can't fucking get rid of you!" he said cheerily and asked me to record his greeting verbatim. I have been training Fred in dispatch for quite a few weeks, an intense and intimate relationship learning the main police channel.Which I had to try in due course. The only shortcoming I saw at The Porch was the lack of salty nibbles so I hiked across the street and bought some chips at Mr Cheapies.The bar tender actually listened when I suggested chips go well with beer, in fact he took a hike and came back with a bag of bugles for himself... This is not your average beer parlor, not at all. There has to be a television somewhere I suppose but it was well out of my way. Plus you can sit outside if you want and watch the poor slobs being abused by live raucous music at The Bull across the street. while drinking Bud "Lite" and listening to small testicled bikers rumble by on their Harleys. Well, I exaggerate a bit, but the Porch is a really nice spot downtown. At the corner of Caroline and Duval it's not hard to find, though it is hard to leave. I felt quite at home on Duval with my pocket camera.But we had places to go and tickets to buy. Tomorrow night we go to the theater. Becky's New Car has received rave reviews from our friends and for some reason, my wife's busy season teaching probably, we are barely able to get in under the wire as tomorrow is the last show. I hate procrastinating but the Red Barn has done a bang up season this year and I will grasp every opportunity to go. http://redbarntheatre.com/ The sun was setting over the roof tops as we emerged back onto Duval at the Hard Rock Café, which sits alongside the entrance to the Red Barn's cute little plaza. Wednesday night was my night off so full of beer and popcorn we watched Lincoln Lawyer which we both enjoyed. My wife the former public defender could only appreciate being a teacher these days after the movie reminded her of the trials and tribulations of the Law. Two hours in the dark and Key West was dark itself when we emerged from the Tropic. We paid $6:25 for four and a half hours parking at a meter just off Duval Street so when people tell you there is no parking in Old Town remind them this is a great time of year to be in Key West.Cheyenne was snoozing on the back seat, exhausted after another afternoon of strolling the streets of key West. But those are photos for another day.